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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25207333">From the Top</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrinyaClockworker/pseuds/IrinyaClockworker'>IrinyaClockworker</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, M/M, Once More With Spirals, Time Travel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 10:47:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,197</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25207333</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrinyaClockworker/pseuds/IrinyaClockworker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After everything goes horribly wrong, Melanie finds herself with a second chance. She just hopes she can use it well.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Danny Stoker &amp; Tim Stoker, Georgie Barker/Melanie King, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Melanie King &amp; Tim Stoker, Sasha James/Tim Stoker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The end of the world is never boring, that's for certain.</p><p>Georgie has described it to her, a few times: an Eye that watches at all times, strange domains that they try to avoid at all costs, and a lot more. Melanie thinks it might actually be good that she can't see it; Georgie might be incapable of fear, but Melanie certainly isn't. Not anymore. And if she was, she might have one of those domains herself.</p><p>It does make things more than a little inconvenient, though. Georgie leads her, when they have to move; they try not to, but sometimes circumstances don't give them much of an option. Like right now--some entity's domain is encroaching on their current hideout as it grows, and they don't have much of a choice but to keep moving. </p><p>As usual, Melanie lets Georgie lead her. She doesn't have much of a choice in that, herself.</p><p>"A bit to the right," Georgie instructs, and Melanie moves as told. She's not sure what she was moving to avoid, but that's probably for the best. Nothing in this new world is pleasant. <em>Thanks, Elias.</em> She has absolutely no doubt that this is his fault--that Eye proves it, as far as she's concerned. Georgie worries that Jon was involved, and he probably was too, but everything traces back to Elias eventually, doesn't it? She wishes she'd killed him when she had the chance.</p><p>"You doing all right?" Georgie asks, and Melanie sighs.</p><p>"Yeah, I'm fine. You?"</p><p>"Could be worse," Georgie says cheerfully. She seems largely unaffected, aside from her concern for others. Melanie wishes she could feel so confident.</p><p>At least they're together, still. If they'd been separated...</p><p>There's a slightly disgruntled <em>meow</em> from Georgie's pack. There was no way they could have left the Admiral behind, of course, so he's come along with them, despite his regular protests at being moved. He's not happy leaving his comfortable life, that's for certain. But neither are they.</p><p>"Shh, shh," Georgie whispers, and there's a rustling that means she's probably taken off her pack and is going to comfort the Admiral for a little bit. "It's okay. We just have to keep going for a little longer, until we find shelter. It's going to be fine. Shhh."</p><p>The Admiral resists efforts to calm him down--in fact, his meowing grows louder, sharper, until he sounds--</p><p>Georgie <em>screams,</em> then, and there's a horrible, crunching noise.</p><p>"Georgie?" Melanie's voice is shaking. What's--oh, god. Oh, god. <em>"Georgie?!"</em></p><p>There's another awful sound, one that Melanie can only identify as the sound of tearing flesh. No, no, no. This can't be happening. </p><p>The Admiral is still meowing, nonstop, and Georgie is--Georgie is--</p><p>Melanie barely has time to scream before she feels a sharp, tearing pain from all sides.</p><p>The last thing she hears is--</p><p>A door?</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>When Melanie opens her eyes--no, that's not right. She doesn't have any eyes. She--why can she see? It's all too bright, streaks of over-saturated color everywhere, whirling and spinning and making her nauseous. </p><p>"Hello!"</p><p>The voice comes from behind her, and with a great effort, she turns, only to see what she thinks is supposed to be another person--it's still so hard to tell, and the figure in front of her is so distorted. She looks down at herself, and sees that she's just as bad--she can't even tell that she has a body, it's all just... <em>colors,</em> in no distinguishable pattern whatsoever.</p><p>"Who... Where am I? Is Georgie--"</p><p>"Georgie's gone. And so are you." That voice has very little in the way of sympathy. "But I have excellent news!"</p><p>Melanie sinks to her knees, barely even caring. Georgie is dead. Georgie with her sunshine voice and laugh is dead. So is Melanie, but that hardly even matters.</p><p>"Why am I here?" she asks dully. "What do you want?"</p><p>"I'm here to give you a second chance!" the figure says. She thinks it's a woman. Maybe. The voice sounds like a woman's voice.</p><p>Melanie doesn't even bother to ask what that means; she has a feeling it's going to be explained to her anyway.</p><p>"See, the problem with this whole apocalypse thing is that, while it's <em>fun</em> and all, it's been far too long!" the woman says in annoyance. "And everyone is dying, and if everyone dies, <em>I'll</em> die, and that doesn't sound like fun in the slightest. So I had an excellent idea! I'm sending you back!"</p><p>"What?" Now Melanie is somewhat engaged. "What do you mean, 'back?'"</p><p>"Before!" The woman's voice distorts for a moment, and then returns to normal. "You're going to fix things, so this doesn't happen. Okay?" She pauses, and then adds, in a knowing sort of tone, "You'll see Georgie again, if you do."</p><p>"...I will?" Melanie hates how her voice cracks. "Georgie will--"</p><p>"She'll still be alive." The woman claps with hands that are far, far too long, in a way that reminds Melanie of how she'd started statement recordings, so long ago. When she didn't know... "You'll be able to save her. Probably. We can hope."</p><p>"How do I know this isn't a trick?" Melanie's not-eyes narrow. "You might have killed her yourself. How do I know I can trust you?"</p><p>"Oh, you don't." A face-splitting grin--quite literally. "And you can't! But you don't really have any other options. You <em>are</em> dead, after all. And so is she. Are you going to do this, or not?"</p><p>Melanie closes her not-eyes and thinks about it, but she doesn't need to think long. "Yes."</p><p>"Great!" The woman claps again. "I'm Helen, by the way. And I'll be your tour guide today--just kidding. I guess you forgot about me? I do look a bit different, here... And I'm sure you're under a lot of stress, blah, blah, blah. I will help you in one way, though. Hold still." </p><p>The woman--<em>Helen,</em> now she remembers, fighting the Flesh and afterwards, <em>that</em> Helen, but she looks so much stranger and more <em>wrong</em> here--she reaches out with her long, long hands and into where Melanie's chest would be--<em>fuck,</em> it hurts, like she's being stabbed, and it feels like it lasts forever before Helen pulls her hands back out. "There!" she says cheerfully. "You'll be getting a visit at some point from Michael. Just show him that, he'll know what it means." </p><p>Melanie blinks, and out of the corner of her vision (it's so strange to have it back) sees a door swing open. </p><p>"There's your stop!" Helen exclaims. "Go on! Oh, and one more piece of advice--start with the Stoker boy."</p><p>Melanie barely gets a chance to process that before she's being pushed through the door. </p><p>"Good luck!" Helen calls. "Try not to ruin everything!" </p><p>And the world once again goes dark.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first thing Melanie thinks upon regaining consciousness is, <em>shit.</em></p><p>And she sure feels like shit. She has a massive headache, and it <em>is</em> the middle of the apocalypse--</p><p>At least, that's what she thinks, until she opens her eyes (which are definitely <em>not supposed to be there</em>) and sees... the ceiling of her old apartment. </p><p>She's in her own bed, in her own apartment, like everything was just a fucked up dream. Like Georgie (oh, god, <em>Georgie)</em> isn't--</p><p>
  <em>"I'm sending you back!"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You're going to fix things, so this doesn't happen. Okay?"</em>
</p><p>Was that... No way. <em>That couldn't possibly have been real,</em> is what she wants to think, but at this point, is anything actually impossible? Maybe this <em>is</em> happening after all... And if it is, then that means--</p><p>
  <em>I have to kill Elias.</em>
</p><p>That's the easiest way of putting a stop to all of this, right? He was definitely the one behind everything that went wrong, that Eye that Georgie told her about is proof enough of that. It was all Elias's fault. </p><p>But how is she supposed to kill him? She <em>tried,</em> she tried so many times and it didn't ever work. He always knew. But she has to, she <em>has</em> to, because if she can't stop him, then Georgie will--</p><p>No. No. She won't let that happen (again). She can't. This is her chance to make everything better. </p><p>She sits up as slowly as possible, and her head pounds, pain spiking right behind her eyes. <em>Pain pills are in the bathroom,</em> she remembers, and stumbles out of bed to go and get some, only to stop, startled, at the sight of herself in the mirror.</p><p>She looks... so different from how she remembers. The stress lines are gone, the dark circles under her eyes gone as well, and while she's always been fairly pale, it had gotten worse over her time with the Magnus Institute--and that's gone, too. She actually looks fairly healthy, she realizes, and it's almost funny. </p><p>The tap water tastes awful, but she manages to force herself to swallow a couple of pills. Hopefully that will help with the headache. </p><p>She wants to call Georgie, but... Georgie won't remember. No one will. She's on her own, and she's going to have to try and figure out how to stop everything on her own--unless she can figure out a way to get people to believe her. But something like <em>I'm actually from the future, Elias is evil and is planning to end the world, you have to believe me</em> isn't going to go over well, especially not with Jonathan Sims, head <em>skeptic.</em></p><p>Judging from the date her phone displays, though, she has plenty of time to think about it. Elias <em>will</em> die, that's a complete certainty. He killed Georgie. Even if she didn't die directly at his hands, he was the cause of it all. He killed Georgie, and now Melanie will kill him. And she'll do it right, this time.</p><p>Playing innocent might not help; for all she knows he'll be able to tell anyway, and Melanie has never been good at looking innocent. Even as a kid, she was absolutely awful at it. Hiding her intentions isn't really her style, even if she was certain it would work.</p><p>She doesn't think it would. She can't hide her hate for him. It burns up her insides and makes her want to scream. He ruined everything. If it weren't for him she wouldn't have had to hurt herself so badly just to get out. If it weren't for him the world would have stayed the same. If it weren't for him Georgie wouldn't have died. God, Melanie hopes she died quickly. The thought of Georgie suffering hurts her more than anything in the world.</p><p>This kind of anger... she hasn't felt it since that bullet was removed from her leg. Is this enough to send her back to that? If she believed in any sort of god she would pray otherwise. She wants to be able to feel things, to feel happiness in response to anything other than taking out her rage on others, to feel love, even to feel sadness and pain. She can still feel those things. She doesn't want that to change.</p><p>The pain in her head spikes again, and she retreats back to the bed to sit down, trying to collect her thoughts. She has to start somewhere, but she's not sure--</p><p>
  <em>"Oh, and one more piece of advice--start with the Stoker boy."</em>
</p><p>Of course! If anyone's going to get on board with her plan, it'll be Tim. She's not sure why she didn't think of that sooner. Headache or no headache, she'd better call him; she doesn't have his number in her phone anymore but she remembers it, so she dials it in quickly and waits, desperate for him to pick up. She doesn't know where to start in explaining things to him, but first he has to answer the phone, and when he finally does she sits up straight and takes a deep breath and then she hears it--</p><p>"Melanie?"</p><p>What?</p><p>How the hell does he know who she is already? It's possible he watches <em>Ghost Hunt UK,</em> but why would he know her phone number?</p><p>"...Tim?"</p><p>"Hey." He sounds so <em>calm,</em> and she's not sure how. "Been a while, hasn't it?"</p><p>She actually laughs at that, though she didn't expect to. "Y-Yeah, I guess you could say that."</p><p>"I'm guessing we have a lot to talk about."</p><p>"You could say that, too," she replies, feeling a bit like she's on autopilot. </p><p>"How about we meet up for drinks and talk there?" Ah, that she can manage. Maybe. She supposes it might make her headache worse, but... <em>It's worth a shot,</em> she thinks wryly.</p><p>"Sounds good. Place by the Institute?"</p><p>"You got it. Half an hour?"</p><p>"I'll be there." </p><p>"See you then."</p><p>"Yeah, see you."</p><p>She lets out a deep sigh as soon as she hears the click on the other end. Why the hell did he know who she was? Unless...</p><p>She's not sure what else it could be. And it sounds so ridiculous, but so does everything that's happening right now.</p><p>Maybe, just maybe, Tim is in the same situation as Melanie.</p><p>She supposes there's only one way to find out.</p>
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